Windows Data Serialization

Introduction

Data serialization is the process of converting an object into a stream of bytes, which can then be stored or transmitted. The reverse process, converting a stream of bytes back into an object, is called deserialization. This documentation covers various methods for serializing and deserializing data in Windows.

XML Serialization

XML Serialization is a mechanism for serializing and deserializing .NET objects into and from an XML file. It's a simple and commonly used technique.

                    
using System.Xml.Serialization;

// Example (simplified)
public class MyClass
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int Value { get; set; }
}

public class Example
{
    public static void Serialize(MyClass obj, string filePath)
    {
        XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyClass));
        using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(filePath))
        {
            serializer.Serialize(writer, obj);
        }
    }
}

Binary Serialization

Binary serialization offers better performance and smaller file sizes compared to XML serialization. It directly serializes objects into a byte array.